1933 Ford Victoria - Steampunk V12

“It got more bizarre as we went down the road.” “It got crazier and crazier and crazier.” “Pretty bizarre car—it’s a crazy thing.” Those were builder Steve Moal’s words—his confessions, really—made in the first few moments of our discussion of Eric Zausner’s 1933 Ford Vicky. Moal is a coachbuilder in Oakland, California, and has created a gang of hot rods over the decades. He knows when something is going to catch people off guard—and this car is certainly one of those things. “When you look at [this car],” explained Moal, “you’re thinking, What were these guys thinking?”

Here’s what they were thinking: “It’s based on the Blue Train Bentley—this car has a chop just like that car—where the back is chopped more than the front,” Moal says. “The concept was to be very Blue Train-ish—but on a Vicky.”

2/13Starting with a relatively common ’33 Tudor that a previous owner had turned into a relatively rare Vicky, the theme for the odd top came from a famous Bentley called the Blue Train Bentley, after it supposedly outran Le Train Bleu in Paris in 1930. The whole top had to be created, as the profile they were shooting for (and being chopped so much more at the rear) rendered the mating surfaces after chopping incompatible.

For those not familiar with French endurance racing of the ’20s and ’30s, the Bentley Blue Train is a famous car based on a ’28–’30 Speed Six chassis. It was created for the Blue Train Race: an early competition that pits automobiles against a locomotive on a 700-mile, overnight run. Since the Bentley Blue Train was used as inspiration, Moal and Zausner decided to keep a lot of the modifications from that era, taking elements from ’30s Grand Prix cars, with a little steampunk thrown in.

Mechanical Masterpiece

6/13Almost everything you can see in this shot was made by Moal Coachbuilders with the exception of the instrument panel stamping. The steering wheel, the pedals, and the levers were all designed with the help of Alberto Hernandez. The crank to the extreme left is for extending or retracting the headlights, an idea taken from ’36–’37 Cord automobiles.

We’re kinda like a jellybean store ,and the customer comes along and stops in and says he’d like a different flavor, and so we make it for him.

“We sprinkled in steampunk-ish elements and all kinds of crazy contraptions,” Moal says. Like the folding top. The whole top opens hydraulically from the back to let air out of the cabin. Zausner wanted the top to open for ventilation, so the hinges are on the leading edge of the top, and it picks up from the back just a couple of inches. “He wanted levers and linkage and hydraulic lines—that was the idea,” Moal says. “You could open it with a stick if you wanted, but it wouldn’t have all of the copper lines, brass fittings, and linkage. The headlights crank out like an old coffin-nose Cord. We engineered the linkage, cables, universal joints, rods and all kinds of stuff—but it’s all of that stuff that makes it interesting to look at, and interesting for us to build.”

7/13Mounted inside the relatively stock 1937 Ford truck grille is this driving light, which adds an element of steampunk to the front of the Ford. Moal said they tried numerous design directions, but the’37 truck grille was deemed the best solution.

But don’t get the impression that just Moal conjures this stuff. Alberto Hernandez gets called in to sketch out and design a lot of the hand-waving that Zausner uses to express what he would like. Moal says you have to have some sort of concept to shoot for. Sometimes they land it the first time, and sometimes things evolve. Says Moal, “We sometimes discover what it becomes as we go along—that’s how we’ve done some other jobs with Eric. We’re pretty flexible, and if there are changes as we go along, we just roll with them.”

8/13This brass, aluminum, and copper radiator ornament is the second attempt—the first being a lost-wax falcon that was deemed too traditional and elegant. Zausner wanted a more mechanical-looking bird like you might see on a Voison. Moal complied with this angular, riveted version.

The hood ornament was one of those evolutionary pieces. “We did a couple of versions of a falcon cast in bronze, but they were too refined. Eric wanted something more “mechanical,” so Alberto did this Nazca Plains–looking bird—more like a Voisin would have. It’s not like a lost-wax casting, it’s got angles and rivets and all,” says Moal.

V12 Inspiration

So did the engine come first, or did the concept need an engine? “The Falconer V12 was always in the mix from the get-go—we were always thinking a big, killer motor,” says Michael Moal, Steve’s son and ramrod for the project. Michael goes on to add, “It’s almost too radical for the street with more than 800 hp. The trimmed flywheel comes up on the revs real quick—it’s driveable, but we would roll it back some if we did another car with a Falconer.”

9/13The one-off dual rear wheels were created by E-T Wheel in San Leandro, California. A nod to some ’30s Grand Prix cars searching for better traction with an extra set of tires, due to the narrow offerings available at the time. Pin drive knock-offs are real.

The wheelbase was extended 5 inches to accommodate the V12, but the frame was made entirely from scratch. Moal opted to create a new frame to better accommodate the torsion bars up front. Besides just needing space for the massive V12, consideration also had to be made for the handbuilt dry-sump tanks, return lines, radiator, airboxes for the fuel injection, and the retractable headlights and their assorted mechanisms. So in addition to fabrication and engineering, Moal also needed to wear the packaging hat from time to time for a complicated build like this.

Attached to the V12 is a Tremec five-speed spinning a 9-inch Ford rearend, suspended on coilovers. The front runs an I-beam on torsion bars sourced from Schroeder Racing Products in Burbank, California. The dual rear wheels harken back to ’30s Grand Prix cars, which needed more traction than their skinny tires could provide. Racers doubled up on rear tires to compensate for the lack of available wide rubber in the day. The one-off wheels were handled by E-T Wheels, as were the pin drive knock-offs. The whole thing rolls on a 116-inch wheelbase, an increase of 4 inches from a stock ’33 Ford.

10/13When you’re planning a complicated build, you have to take into consideration all of the elements that need to be packaged into the car. The dry-sump V12 needed its own oil tank and breathers, and there were hydraulics for not only the clutch and brakes but the top actuation as well. All of these components were fabbed by Moal.

Some may ask why all of the body changes were necessary when you’re dealing with, for Ford standards, a relatively rare body style. The ’33 Victorias were one of the rarest of Fords in 1933 with a little more than 4,000 manufactured. They’re pretty cool on their own. But this particular Vicky didn’t start out as a Vicky, which helps explain Zausner and Moal’s zeal in cutting it up. Says Steve, “Somebody made a Tudor into a Vicky, and that’s what Eric started with. We did the chop and turned it into what it became. A lot of the panel work and stuff like that we did. We changed it into what it is, and it’s a crazy thing!” Steve said it, not us.

Thousands of Man Hours

The interior is an overload of gauges, vents, copper lines, levers, and stuff. “We made everything function so things work—and there’s a lot of time with the leverages and detents and all of that. To make this car, it took a lot of engineering and screwing around,” says Steve.

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Which brings up the consideration of time and cost. You could say that an average Deuce highboy roadster takes about 1,000 hours to make—whether it’s real steel or fiberglass. How much time does Steve figure he has in Zausner’s Vicky? “We worked on it a couple of years. There’s probably more hours than what it seems—I wouldn’t be surprised if there are 2,000 hours in the car—but I try to avoid even thinking about that stuff. There are a lot of handmade parts in that car, and getting all of those things designed and functioning takes a lot of time. You’re making things that never were.”

There is a lot more you don’t see in the images, such as the interior handles. Steve says, “All of the handles inside are illuminated at night, and one of the handles is used to open and close the exhaust. All of that stuff functions and works.” Some of the sheetmetal work and styling are elegant, while other parts of the project are not. “Some things wanted to be more brutal—like the straight-bar bumper with the clamped-on brackets,” he says.

12/13Though a bit hard to see in this shot, the top hydraulically lifts at the rear a few inches to let stale air out of the cabin. The copper lines, brackets, and joints are overplayed for the steampunk effect. The interior is finished in a sort of unfinished way that draws you in as though you’re reviewing a schematic.

Not everything was done at Moal Coachbuilders. The top and webbed upholstery were done by Ken Neminac in Walnut Creek, California, with all of the chrome handled by Sherm’s Plating in Sacramento, California.

This isn’t the first unique Moal and Zausner collaboration, but you can see the brain trust getting evermore daring and intricate with each new project. “We’re kinda like a jellybean store, and the customer comes along and stops in and says he’d like a different flavor, and so we make it for him,” Steve explains.

Overwrought or inspired, this is how builders break out of the cookie-cutter mode, by combining their clients’ dreams, tastes, and needs to their ability to create virtually anything in metal. We applaud Moal Coachbuilders and Eric Zausner for taking an iconic Henry Ford design and twisting it to their liking. It may not be to your liking, but then it was built to please only one person, the guy who owns it.

13/13The unusual top treatment is accentuated in this view. What looks like a top insert is actually hinged at the front and lifts hydraulically at the rear to allow air inside the cabin to be exhausted. The handformed fenders, pans, valances, and hood were all done at Moal’s.